10 Food Trends That Need to Die in 2015

1. Juice Cleanses: It is officially time for everyone to stop pretending that you can consume a drink that will scour your insides and make them sparkly clean. (There's no evidence that the body requires or remotely benefits from random detox diets.) If you made it this far in life, your insides are probably clean enough. (And if you made it this far eating food, then a new, all-liquid diet is not going to satiate you.)

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2. Gluten-Hating: Unless you are deathly allergic to gluten or you have celiac disease or a gluten intolerance, food made with gluten is not the devil. Gluten-free pastas, snack foods, breads, and treats aren't necessarily lower in calories or be any healthier than gluten-free foods. They just tend to cost more.

3. Protein-Infused Food: Now that food makers have taken all the gluten and carbs and fat and fun out of food, they have to put something back in there. Because science proves that protein keeps you full, it's no wonder manufacturers have begun adding it to foods like chips. It's not a bad idea until you eat those chips with your naturally protein-rich turkey sandwich, and wash it all down with a high-protein smoothie: then you end up overdoing it. Most women only need about 5.5 ounces equivalent of protein per day — a three-egg omelet and a large chicken breast will get you there. Stick with foods you can find in nature and you'll be good to go.

4. Special "High-Fiber" Foods: Food makers sometimes add fiber to products to bulk them up without driving up the product's calories and because "high fiber" sounds healthy. It's been going on for a while now, which is why you can find high-fiber foods (from cereal to crackers, bread, snack bars, and ice cream) in almost any grocery store aisle.

While your body is designed to handle normal portions of naturally fiber-rich foods (namely fruits, veggies, and whole grains), processed foods that contain unnatural amounts of fiber from sources like chicory root, inulin, wheat bran, sorghum fibers, soy hulls, cellulose, lignin, maltodextrin, and polydextrose can cause stomach cramping, gas, and diarrhea or constipation (particularly if you load up on fiber without drinking enough water). If you can't remember the names of all those ingredients, just look out for packaged foods that have more than 5 grams of fiber per serving, which means they could contain the kind of added fiber that can irritate your system.

5. Kale Chips: Because they're made of leaves and are green, they seem healthier than potato chips. And while kale chips may win by a hair (kale contains fewer carbs and some more nutrients than potatoes), some kale chip flavors some varieties are highly processed. They're battered with salt and vegan cheese or other extraneous ingredients, then deep-fried, which makes the snack less virtuous. (Not to mention that you can't eat even one single kale chip without getting the bits all up in your teeth.)

6. Low-Calorie Soda: There is no rational reason to drink sugar-sweetened beverages, which contain calories that neither fill you up nor deliver sustainable energy. As Regina George might say: "Stop trying to make soda happen."

7. Bottomless Menu Items: Last year Olive Garden offered a $100 never-ending-pasta pass and TGI Fridays challenged overeaters everywhere to take advantage of their $10 bottomless appetizers. While these deals were short-lived, they should never, ever happen again: Research suggests that when you pay less for food, you enjoy it less. Even worse: When second, third, and fourth servings are free, you're more likely to eat them. Because calories add up regardless of how much they cost, a binge could affect your health and weight long after a seemingly stellar restaurant promo ends.

8. Bacon-Flavored Everything: You know bacon isn't the healthiest thing you can eat. (It's high in sodium and unhealthy saturated fat.) But when you shun it in lieu of processed bacon-infused snack foods, like bacon popcorn, booze, and ice cream, you end up getting all the bad stuff found in bacon plus all the dubious ingredients found in basic versions of the snack food or dessert. In other words? You do double damage.

9. Greek-Yogurt-Flavored Foods: Most of the Greek yogurt-flavored cereal, trail mix, and snack bars now on shelves are missing two vital things: the protein and live cultures that give Greek yogurt its well-deserved health halo. Just to put things in perspective: One cup of Greek yogurt contains just milk, cream, and cultures, and serves up 100 calories and 18 grams of protein. The same amount of Greek yogurt cereal contains nearly 30 different ingredients, with 230 calories and only 5 grams of protein.

10. Dinner Cocktails With More Calories Than Your Meal: Back in the day, people mixed cocktails to mask the taste of alcohol-based medicinal treatments, says Anthony Caporale, a professional bartending instructor, and author of the Off-Broadway show, "The Imbible: A Spirited History of Drinking." In an unlikely twist of events, many cocktails are now made with ready-to-drink mixes that might as well be toxic. "They don't seem to be of very high quality and are usually mostly sugar with lots of artificial ingredients and chemicals," Caporale says. And you won't believe how many calories standard cocktails contain.

Even worse: When you order a mix-made cocktail at dinner, the flavors compete with the ones in your food. To save calories and ~bonus~ make your meal taste even better, stick with a vodka soda (about 80 calories). Pure alcohol (like vodka) dissolves flavor compounds differently than water, which helps your taste buds access all the different flavors, according to Caporale.